Chapter 2

The rest of my words died in my throat.

It hit me then that Mother and I had snuck out of the palace. We had no handmaidens, no guards. If anyone found out who we were, we would be in real danger. Still, it was so unfair!

Cedric watched my mother scold me and actually looked pleased. He carried on as though it were settled. "So you do have some sense, after all. You know this isn't the place to talk. Let's go somewhere quieter and sort this out properly. The child deserves to know who her real parents are."

As he spoke, he reached out to grab my arm.

"Don't touch me!" I shrieked and scrambled behind Mother.

Mother lifted her hand and blocked his reach with one calm, deliberate motion. "Mr. Ashworth, mind yourself."

Cedric's hand hung frozen in the air. His expression darkened. "Emmeline Sinclair, I'm being generous here. Don't push your luck. I walked away once. I can take my daughter and walk away again, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Seraphina stopped crying too, her eyes darting between Mother and me with no trace of sadness left in them, only a cold, calculating look that made my skin crawl.

Mother drew a deep breath and straightened herself. "Fine. Then let us go somewhere else and talk."

Mother took my hand and walked quickly away from the crowds, ducking into a narrow alley.

Cedric and Seraphina followed us in, one in front and one behind, blocking the way out.

Seraphina spoke first. The grief was gone from her voice, replaced by a barely contained excitement. "Emmeline, there's no one else around now, so we can speak freely. I really should thank you for everything back then."

Mother tucked me further behind her.

"Thank me for what? For being foolish enough to hide you, my own half-sister who claimed she'd been violated and gotten pregnant, in the country estate? For looking after you hand and foot? For brewing tonics for you every single day with my own hands because I worried the pregnancy was hard on you?"

Seraphina covered her mouth and laughed. The sound was sharp and grating in the darkness. "You remember it all so well. That's right, the bone broth, the herbal remedies... all the finest things. Every time I drank them in front of Cedric, he'd say what a kind soul you were."

She drew out the words "kind soul," pressing down on each one, slow and deliberate.

Cedric cleared his throat and looked away, visibly uncomfortable. But he quickly turned back, his brow furrowed. "Emmeline, there's no need to dredge up the past. Seraphina didn't have a choice back then.

"An unmarried woman with child... If anyone found out, it would've been a death sentence. You helped her. I haven't forgotten that. That's exactly why I'm offering you a proper place by my side now."

A proper place? As a concubine?

I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted iron.

Then Mother laughed, low and quiet.

"One of you was my betrothed, promised to me before we were even born. The other was my half-sister, the one I raised and looked after since she was small. And right before my wedding, the two of you gave me quite the surprise."

She paused, and every word that followed landed like a shard of ice shattering against stone. "You left a letter saying you 'refused to be tied down' and wanted to chase true love.

"On my wedding day, the only news I received was that my betrothed had eloped with my half-sister and left behind a daughter. I was the eldest legitimate daughter of the Prime Minister, and overnight, I became the biggest joke in the entire capital."

The alley went dead silent.

I stood there, stunned. I had never heard any of this before.

Father and Mother loved each other deeply. There was no one else in the court but her. I had always believed that Mother's life had been this happy from the very beginning. I never knew someone had hurt her like this, that someone had humiliated her in front of the whole world.